


Stand By Me

by ThatNeedyZombie



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Characters gets hurt, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fluff, M/M, Nobody dies in this story. They just get really big boo-boos, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow Burn, attempt of humour, idiots to lovers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:21:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26862802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatNeedyZombie/pseuds/ThatNeedyZombie
Summary: Katagawa jr. comes to take Atlas by himself after another rejection from the CEO, Rhys Strongfork. He thinks himself ready to kill the only person for who he had feelings but is he?Important:-Not a native english speaker, sorry in advance for the grammar! For a big part of the first chap I had the help of:Salty729on twitter!! (thank you very much again!)
Relationships: Katagawa Jr./Rhys (Borderlands)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 14





	Stand By Me

When Zer0 had destroyed the Zanara, the Atlas CEO expected repercussions. More Maliwan soldiers in the streets, more of his favorite places being turned into ashes, and the promise of a long and painful death from a mad Katagawa. Of course, the last one wouldn’t happen. This ‘war’ was just a game for the creepy stalker. Nothing more than that, he wouldn’t kill him. At least, Rhys Strongfork thought so.

Until now…

Rhys ran as fast as he could, using the trapdoor under his desk to escape from the person chasing him. They looked like Zer0, the suit, the katana, but part of Rhys refused to accept that it was actually his friend even with all the evidence that it was. But, with Atlas losing more and more money day by day due to the war, maybe the Vault Hunter found it more rewarding to work for the enemy. 

Surprisingly enough, Katagawa had chosen now to really try and kill him. There had been many occasions to do so before and he hadn’t. Maybe he really did love his stupid pleasure yacht… 

  
Like an idiot, Rhys quickly glanced over his shoulder to gauge the distance between them and tripped miserably over nothing. With the help of his mechanical arm, he turned and started to crawl far away.

  
“Zer0, c-come on, man! I thought we were friends!” He stuttered incredulously as the katana was raised and readied to cut his head off.

  
The worst thing about this whole situation was that he thought he had already seen the most horrible things his life had had to offer. A few years ago, in the Pandorian desert, when his ex-boss Vasquez had almost shot him and his best bro. Back when he had to survive Handsome Jack invading his thoughts and the fall of Helios. He had come through all that, and still found himself facing this terrifying katana.

Rhys closed his eyes as the blade began to fall, resigned to his fate.

When pain did not come, he reopened his eyes. Two Zer0s stood above him. One clad in Maliwan colors streaked in crimson, the other in the familiar all black, both straining their swords against the others. Zer0, the _real_ Zer0, had come to his rescue!

Rhys was only able to be relieved for a moment before an all-out fight broke out right over his head. He watched as they fought, too stunned, too impressed, to move like he knew he should have.

Katagawa had hired an assassin… Worse, he tried to hurt Rhys in any way possible by making him believe his friend would kill him! Maybe this wasn’t the priority, but the Atlas’ CEO couldn’t stop thinking about that. He would contact Katagawa right after (because Zer0 was going to win of course) and tell him about his disappointment!

Maybe if for once, he yelled at him, the man would finally understand that Rhys was tired of all this. And just maybe, they could both speak like adults and not teenagers trying to prove the other wrong by showing who had the biggest… _company_. 

Fear of losing his non-mechanical arm finally made Rhys move away from the fight. Crawling far enough from him to see the battle but not be hurt.

Quickly the real Zer0 took control of the fight and knocked the others mask off. The helmet tumbled to the ground and Rhys’ eyes widened, it was Katagawa! The man had come in person to kill him, he hadn’t sent an assassin. If Rhys hadn’t been so afraid, he might have found the gesture flattering.

“You should’ve joined the family, Rhys.” Growled Katagawa, looking directly at Rhys. 

Rhys swallowed hard. Crawling like a ratch backwards on the ground to put more distance between them. Katagawa tried to follow him but Zer0 was faster and stopped him, that’s when the real fight started. One of the two would lose. 

Of course, more than anything, the CEO wanted his friend to win but a part of him felt mad. Utterly mad. Why did Katagawa had to come in person? Couldn’t he just hire someone?

Now he was going to die.

Heart pounding in his chest, Rhys hid next to the stairs and wrapped his arms around his head as he heard someone was shooting. Not the best protection, but what else he had? No way he could run to safety with Katagawa moving so fast around him.

This day couldn’t end well and, thinking about how free he’d be once Katagawa dead didn’t help him at all. Because in the end of the day… Rhys would be alone. No matter the power he had as the president of Atlas, Rhys’ days always ended in loneliness.

Later, he would’ve to fight against the strange feelings the death of his corporate enemy does to him. The pain of a loss was already there, twisting his heart. It made him feel terrible even though no blood had been spilled yet.

If only he could stop that, put the end to the fight and get a chance to talk. But… how could he do that? Once again, Rhys was powerless.

Noises of the fight were all around the place, like thunder tearing up the air.

These two could kill him so easily, it was scary! Luckily, one of them didn’t want too, and maybe the second wasn’t too sure about it…

Rhys lifted his head shyly when a shadow hid the sun.

“Zer0!”

Nope. Not Zer0. Katagawa looked down at him. One of the Katagawa, Rhys could see three others of them not so far from his cache. He had no idea what was going on, never knew Kat had clones and asking for information was far from his mind.

He tried to crawl back, hide himself deeper in the stair’s shadow but he was already pressed against the wall. No way to escape now, and Zer0 couldn’t save him on time. The assassin was giving everything as they fought against what happened to be just a shadow.

“You don’t want to do that…” breathed Rhys as the man slowly raised his katana. If only Rhys had carried a gun with him, or his good old stun baton… “Katagawa, please?” He tried before closing his eyes.

This time, Rhys thought it was it. Time to see the nothing, Handsome Jack had mentioned, by himself.

But when he opened them, there was nobody in front of him anymore. He couldn’t believe it! Why? Katagawa looked so ready to end it all only a couple of minutes before, what had changed?

At that moment, Rhys didn’t care much about it. He stayed hidden and worked on control his breathing again.

After some long minutes, he quickly glanced at the battleground to see which one was winning. Of course, only one really stood a chance in this fight.

Rhys worn is winner smile at the view of Zer0. They knew this place better, had fought against biggest monsters, of course the Vault Hunter had the advantage!

Katagawa was good, better than Rhys could’ve guessed, but he still missed experience to come against a legend like Zer0.

So… After almost twenty minutes of fight, Zer0 unarmed Katagawa who fell on the floor, blood dripping from his forehead. The head of Maliwan’s Mergers and Acquisitions laid on Promethea’s floor, every movement caused his mouth to twist into an ugly grimace.

Rhys stood up. They were so close from his position the Atlas CEO could see every drop of blood Katagawa had loosen in the battle.

A smiley appeared on Zer0’s mask, a happy one as the moment to finally kill the one stalking their friend and boss had come.

“Wait, no.” Rhys screamed at the top of his lungs. He couldn’t stop himself. He hadn’t accepted to take the reasonable choice. 

It surprised Zer0. So much, they got distracted by the way Rhys screamed and quickly walked toward them.

That’s when Katagawa made his move and shot his masked opponent.

Zer0 let out of a painful noise and pushed Rhys aside to protect him as they could. That gesture made the Vault Hunter vulnerable, enough for Katagawa to stab them as to be sure they wouldn’t survive.

Rhys expected to see Zer0 disappear and reappear somewhere near, as he did in the past every time Rhys thought the end had come. But it didn’t happen.

For it was the real Zero that Katagawa had just stabbed.

Rhys’ skin grew pale as he saw the legendary assassin slowly falling on the ground in their own blood. All because of him.

“It’s over…” Painfully, Katagawa stood up on his legs, ready to finish the fight for good. He glanced at Rhys, wondering why he interfered since he hated him and obviously wanted him dead. Maybe he… No, it didn’t matter. Everything had to end there.

“You both missed the opportunity to stay alive.”

Katagawa was ready to kill Zer0, cut their head off but Rhys screamed something: “Stop! I’ll join you.”

As if he had ever been courageous before, Rhys stood between Katagawa and Zer0. The Vault Hunter was still breathing, everything wasn’t lost yet.

“J-just don’t kill my friend. Okay?”

Katagawa considered it. For a second. 

“Why would I accept it now? I gave you a chance, Rhys. You missed it.”

“Ye-yeah yeah, I know. I’ve been a fool.” He took a step closer to the man raising a katana in his direction. “Come on, b-buddy. Isn’t this what you want?”

Katagawa narrowed his eyes, placing the arm on Rhys’ tie to make him step back.

He could add a darker red to his stupid tie… Just one little pressure and everything could’ve been over. Atlas could be his, no more need to care about the actual CEO’s wants. No more competition because Rhys was _competition_. Wasn’t he?

He refused to negotiate, destroyed the Zanara… This war, it could’ve been different. Everything was because of Rhys’ obstinacy to not surrender.

But didn’t he like Rhys because of this? A quitter wouldn’t have been able to rebuild Atlas and face an enemy as huge as Maliwan. Unlike him, Rhys went from a nobody to the CEO of a huge company in no time.

“Katagawa?” Rhys had lifted his hands up. Wave of fear made him shivers as Maliwan’s soldiers entered the place. Surrounded by his man, _his army,_ would Katagawa even listen to him?

“Please, let…”

“No.” Suddenly, Kat’s katana seemed to weight in his hands. “I wanted your unconditional surrender. Not a deal Rhys!”

“You’re lying to yourself.” A risky move, but Rhys had nothing else to lose anyway. “You want more than this… Y-You want my friendship.” Rhys wasn’t completely sure about this. Lorelei had this theory and they talked about it one night, while Maliwan destroyed half of Promethea... Now was the moment to see if she were right.

Katagawa’s expression changed, he seemed annoyed. _Not good!_ But at least, he still hadn’t killed Rhys yet.

“But we can’t be friend if you kill the people that I… care about.” It seemed to work. Katagawa glanced at Zer0 then at Rhys, considering what the CEO had just told him. He lowered his katana. The gesture was enough for Rhys to be reassured.

This was his only chance to speak just a little bit more, try a little bit harder. “You can become one of those persons, please just think about it! J-Just let them live. Zer0, Lorelei, all my people. That’s all I’m asking you and then... I’ll be yours.”

Too much…

Katagawa frowned, glaring at Rhys with hate in his eyes.

“You’re lying !!”

Before Rhys could open his mouth, Zer0 moved behind him and a soldier shot. This was the first shot of many more in this little courtyard where Rhys had chosen to hide. The first note of a darker song closing the event of that day for at least one of them. Every soldier tried to kill the now invisible assassin. Zer0 was known to be unstoppable, a killing machine who had made many powerful persons fall. The one who would get to put them down would become a hero. At least for some. 

And maybe one of them did it. Maybe the famous Vault Hunter died by the hands of some random Maliwan’s soldier. But honestly, Katagawa couldn’t tell because…

A whimper left Rhys’ lips, a pathetic sound that made Katagawa drop his katana to focus only on the... _competition_.

He had seen so much blood recently… The blood of his siblings, of every Atlas’ soldiers he killed, but this?

Rhys’ blood stained his white shirt, making it take the red color of his tie. The pain and surprise on Rhys face as he was bleeding made Katagawa mute.

THAT was horrible. It made the man so ready to kill the Atlas’s CEO lose his confidence. Everything he had been so certain of now seemed dumb.

He grabbed Rhys right before he fell, pressing a shaky hand on one of his wounds. “Everything will be alright.” Lied Katagawa, not believing in this at all. Too much blood. “Hold on Rhys.”

The pain felt unreal. Almost like it did nothing, yet Rhys’ eyes slowly closed themselves. “Kat…a…” His enemy’s face was the last thing he saw before falling into the darkness.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope y'all liked it! Will post more chapters as soon as I can!


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